A brief history: In 200 BC Darouernon was a British settlement. Taken by the Romans in 43 AD it became known as Durovernum. After Roman withdrawal and a period of strife it reappeared as Cant-wara-burh (Burh of the Men of Kent).
In 597 AD Ethelbert, King of Kent, gave Augustine and his monks a dwelling place. After the King's conversion, two churches were consecrated (now the Cathedral and St. Augustine's Abbey). In 851 and 1011 the city was laid waste by the Danes.
After the Norman Conquest there was great building activity, and the two churches became rival monasteries. The life of medieval Canterbury centred on the shrine of St. Thomas Becket. Great inns and hospitals were built for pilgrims, royal visits were frequent, and great processions passed through on the coast road.
After the Dissolution came a period of poverty - relieved in the 16th and 17th centuries by William and Huguenot refugees who introduced the industry of fine weaving.
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